This month’s cover design was produced by Matthew Willis who is a multi-media creator living in Sydney, Australia. As you know seeing his site, he is an up-and-coming creator produces experimental flash works with his peculiar programming based on typography and photography as well as this cover. He is about to move his base of activity to Canada. We spoke to him about the web scene in Australia, etc.

First of all, please tell us who you are.

Matthew Willis, 29, Presently living in the lower blue mountains, Sydney, Australia.

Please tell us about your current activity.

Personally: I am working with Telemetry Orchestra on a video for their new single “Swingers International“.
Work – at the ABC as an online designer.で

What kind of work are you doing at your site mwg

Its not work at all… I am just creating little features. A few have some sort of conceptual thought involved.
Some are created using photography, some typography, others are digital captures of video I have shot. I guess it is best labelled as art “work”.

How (where) did you learn such interactive designs?

Absolutely no idea. I have never done a course in design, interactive design or even graphic design. My interest in animation an visual graphics started when I was quiet young and I have worked with some great art directors and creative conceptual thinkers so this would have had some influence on what I am creating although they were not realy involved in “interactive design” more tv and print based.

What are your ideas on interactive design and which personal principles do you follow in creating a design?

It all depends on the target market. The most important thing is to place yourself in the “shoes” of the user and think the way they do. Making sure they are able to find the information that they have come for. Simple navigation. At mwg I am trying to create features that have impact and pushing the boundaries using flash. I want the user to feel they have to watch the features a couple of times because they feel as though they may have missed something or just to try and work out how I created it. Different ways of animating and most importantly using sound. I believe sound is an essential part of my projects. oh yeah… humour always works… in any language…

When you made the cover graphic for Shift this month, what did you image?

I “imagined” you would ignore the submission. I honestly didn’t think the submission was good enough.
With that in mind I created it using recycled graphics and when Shift responded with “We think clean font would be better” I changed the font. I really think a good designer is someone who can take criticism constructively and act on it. Lately I have been pushing flash with frame rates. Trying to acheive 40-60 fps which is not possible with TV or Film. I wanted it to move, flicker and semi trance the user which was helped with sound supplied by Kazimuchi.